We Spend Much More Time On Netflix Than Socializing, Exercising Or Reading

Trending News: Netflix Is More Important To Us Than Friends Or Fitness

Why Is This Important?

Because Netflix has taken over our lives.

Long Story Short

If you tally up the amount of streaming hours on Netflix and divide it by subscribers you get a grim look at the way we spend our time. Netflix takes up more of our time than socializing with others, reading or working out — by a lot.

Long Story

It seems that the streaming service is more important to us than human interaction, getting fit or expanding out minds with a good book. CordCutting.com made the simple calculation by taking the amount of streaming hours reported by CEO Reed Hastings and dividing at by the number of subscribers. If you contrast those numbers with U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, you get a grim look at how Americans spend their time.

Adulthood is just forcing yourself to do something other than eat ice cream and watch Netflix all day.

— Melissa Stetten (@MelissaStetten) May 13, 2016

The average Netflix subscriber spends one hour and 40 minutes on Netflix daily. So about two hour-long shows or most of a movie. Sounds reasonable, until you look at how much time we spend doing other important things.

Just 38 minutes of our day is spent "socializing and communicating" with others, which is shockingly low if you ask me.

We also spend just a measly 17 minutes "participating in sports, exercise and recreation" and it's doubtful that time is spent doing HIIT or some other high-intensity work out.

A previous tally had Netflix taking up more of our time than, commuting, eating, taking cares of kids, and yes, sex.

But Netflix isn't as much of a time killer for Americans as television is/was depending on if you cut your cable cord yet or not. The Bureau of Labor stats from 2014 put TV watching at nearly three hours of our daily leisure time — more than twice as much time as anything else we do.

So whether it's Netflix or the plain old tube, do yourself a favor and go outside.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

How much healthier, smarter and better rounded people would the U.S. be if Americans did better things with their leisure time?